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DECISION
ROMERO, J.:
Before us is a petition for review of the decision of the Court of Appeals dated October 27, 1997, reversing
the decision of the Regional Trial Court and dismissing herein petitioners complaint, as well as its resolution of
March 5, 1998, denying petitioners motion for reconsideration.
The facts are as follows:
Sometime in 1959, respondent Nicanor Doldol occupied a portion of land in Barrio Pontacan,
Municipality of Opol, Misamis Oriental. On October 23, 1963, he filed an application for saltwork
purposes for the said area with the Bureau of Forest Development. The Director of Forestry,
however, rejected the same on April 1, 1968. Meanwhile, the Provincial Board of Misamis Oriental
passed a resolution in 1965 reserving Lot 4932, Cad-237, Opol Cadastre as a school site. This
reserved lot unfortunately included the area occupied by Doldol.
In accordance with said resolution, the Opol High School transferred to the site in 1970. Seventeen
years later, on November 2, 1987, then President Corazon Aquino issued Proclamation No. 180
reserving the area, including the portion in dispute, for the Opol High School, now renamed the
Opol National Secondary Technical School (hereafter Opol National School). Needing the area
occupied by Doldol for its intended projects, the school made several demands for him to vacate
said portion, but he refused to move.
In view of Doldols refusal to vacate, Opol National School filed in 1991 a complaint for accion
possessoria with the Regional Trial Court of Cagayan de Oro. The trial court ruled in the schools
favor and ordered Doldol to vacate the land. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision
of the court a quo, ruling that Doldol was entitled to the portion he occupied, he having possessed
the same for thirty-two years, from 1959 up to the time of the filing of the complaint in 1991.
Opol National Schools motion for reconsideration of said decision having been denied by the Court
of Appeals in its resolution of March 5, 1998, Opol National School elevated its case to this Court,
claiming that the Court of Appeals erred on a question of law when it held, contrary to the evidence
on record, that respondent had been in open, continuous, notorious and exclusive possession of the
land in dispute for thirty-two years.